I'm trying to listen to these albums in chronological order, and I'm getting confused with them because of the lineup changes, mostly with the fact that Barrow and O'Hearn are on bass for Halloween, but just Barrow on Saarbrucken. I thought the 2 played bass, and then O'Hearn left, but it seems he left, came back, then left again. Help?

O;Hearn left in 1978 and was replaced by Barrow, then in october O'Hearn came back until the end of 1978, so FZ had 2 bassplayers in the band until the end of the tour/year.See here for more specific details.

O;Hearn left in 1978 and was replaced by Barrow, then in october O'Hearn came back until the end of 1978, so FZ had 2 bassplayers in the band until the end of the tour/year.See here for more specific details.

Are there some recordings featuring Barrow and O'Hearn at once? And how were they playing they parts? The first bassist was playing the groove and the second was soloing, or they both were playing the same bassline?

O;Hearn left in 1978 and was replaced by Barrow, then in october O'Hearn came back until the end of 1978, so FZ had 2 bassplayers in the band until the end of the tour/year.See here for more specific details.

Are there some recordings featuring Barrow and O'Hearn at once? And how were they playing they parts? The first bassist was playing the groove and the second was soloing, or they both were playing the same bassline?

I think most often O'Hearn played behind the solos and Barrow played on the songs. On some songs they had harmonized parts. On a few songs from the Halloween run Barrow played acoustic guitar while O'Hearn played bass. There are more clues in those videos (I haven't watched all of them yet).

They seem to trade off accompanying Frank on solos, or when both it seems Patrick takes the high register most of the time. In written two bass parts they each play quite a bit!

I liked Patrick with Terry a lot and that fretless tone is impeccable, but Arthur and Vinnie seemed a bit more interactive to one another and Frank and got weirder IMO. I read Frank needed patrick "for the energy" the band seemed to lack but to me I think a big problem was the setlists. 78-82 are killer Frank solo years, and my favorite lineups (79-80!!!) but the absence of some of the looseness of the Roxy-era bands was forever gone.

I do want to ask, related to this era (I'll stretch to '80 too) about the songs:

Conehead: Was this a zappa solo song, vary often, of depends on the year. On "we don't mess around" it's a zappa solo as well as on Halloween I believe and most boots. That said Upper Darby PA early show 1980 (logeman lineup) Tommy Arthur and Logeman pull off one of the coolest Zappa jams here.

Easy Meat: I've always known this as a zappa solo vehicle but Zurich 79 has (either Tommy or Peter, pretty sure it's the latter though would love to know for sure) an incredible easy meat jam in an odd-meter.

City of Tiny Lights: I know this song often has Denny or Adrian or Ray White taking a solo followed by a Frank solo, but this 79 version from the early Munich show also has a peter solo (and goes into outside now, which was done fairly often on this tour)

Any other one-offs (or maybe not, this is why I am asking if maybe on these tours the solo slots were changed) or cool version from this era?

Conehead: On the fall 77 tour this was just an instrumental riff with a Zappa solo over it. In fall 78 it became a short vocal tune followed by a Zappa solo. In 1980 Zappa wrote more of the song but didn't solo on it, except on the studio versions. Shankar and Tommy traded solos on it on May 10 1980.

Easy Meat: Yes, that Zurich version is a very interesting one off.

City Of Tiny Lights: I think in some 76/77 versions like the one on the Philly 76 CD, only Ray White soloed on it. Adrian never played a solo on this song as far as I know. When Denny Walley was in the band in 78/79 he played a solo, followed by Zappa. There again the final versions of 1979 had a very interesting detour into the Outside Now riff where sometimes the keyboardists soloed, followed by Zappa.

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